Tom Hill Says Blackstone Lifts $1.4B to Purchase Hedge Fund Stakes
J. Tomilson Hill, vice chairman at Blackstone Group LP, revealed that a premier global investment and advisory firm have raised an initial $1.4 billion to buy stakes in hedge fund firms.
Blackstone
is seeking $3 billion for the strategy, which will target firms with $3
billion to $4 billion in assets, Hill said today at Credit Suisse Group
AG’s financial-services forum in Boca Raton, Florida. New York-based
Blackstone is seeing opportunities to buy stakes at valuations of 4.5 to
5 times cash flow, he said.
“You
have an opportunity not only to benefit from their growth but also to
look down the road at creating a public vehicle for that,” Hill said.
“We will, in our mind, dominate that space the way we have dominated the
seeding space.”
Blackstone’s
hedge funds-of-funds group, which has grown to $56 billion in assets
since Hill took over in 2000, already has funds that seed new managers
by providing them with $100 million to $200 million in initial capital.
The new strategy will identify existing hedge-fund managers that
Blackstone is convinced will “continue to grow and do well,” Hill said.
Source: Bloomberg